Update on S. Oregon Coast Closures at Sunset Bay Campground, Shore Acres

Published 01/08/25 at 8:25 a.m.
By Oregon Coast Beach Connection Staff

(Coos Bay, Oregon) – There is still no estimate on when Shore Acres State Park and Cape Arago will again be accessible to visitors, but Oregon State Parks and Oregon's Adventure Coast: Coos Bay – North Bend – Charleston (OAC) had some updates on the closures and damage to the Coos Bay-area attractions after heavy rains took out the main road. (Photos OPRD)

On January 3, major flooding in the area caused the shutdown of Sunset Bay Campground, including the evacuation of campers spending the night. A landslide also took out part of the road going into Shore Acres State Park and Cape Arago – essentially the most scenic part of the Cape Arago Highway.

The slide occurred at what is called Norton's Gulch, almost immediately south of the entrance to Sunset Bay State Park and less than two miles from Charleston.

It comes at a somewhat inconvenient time, just as Shore Acres gets into the midst of its winter storm displays – the largest on the Oregon coast.

OAC executive director Janice Langlinais said Oregon State Parks and Recreation Department (OPRD) officials from the Sunset Bay State Park District gave them an update on the three state parks in the area on Tuesday.

For good news, Sunset Bay Campground reopens tomorrow (Thursday, January 9), and the Sunset Bay Day Use area has continued to be open this entire time. Shore Acres is accessible by the hiking trail, although it's quite muddy from all the rain.

However, the road closure is still up in the air, Langlinais said. OPRD is in charge of the road – not ODOT – although ODOT and OPRD told Oregon Coast Beach Connection they will work closely on the project.

Langlinais said visitors can hike from Sunset Bay's day use area to Shore Acres and Cape Arago. While a small portion of the trail does take you onto the roadway where the slide happened, they urge extreme caution if you're going to use that.

“There’s only one little section that might be considered gnarly and it’s just that you have to go on the road and skirt around the damage and get back on the trail,” Langlinais told Oregon Coast Beach Connection. “The trail is muddy because it’s been raining. But my contact at [State Parks] said it’s in a lot better condition than they anticipated given how much rain they had.”

The trail is 6.5 miles if you're going round trip from Sunset Bay to Cape Arago and back. However, from Sunset Bay to Shore Acres is less than two miles, she said.

With king tides coming up, visitors often flock to Shore Acres in the hope of catching one of the Oregon coast's more spectacular sights: waves that can fire up to as high as 200 feet.

However, as Langlinais and OAC have been trying to point out this year, king tides don't necessarily mean big waves at Shore Acres.

It takes a good storm to churn up waves like that – not king tides. What's the Difference Between King Tides and Oregon / Washington Coast Storm Wave Events

“I want to reiterate to your readers that while king tides are this weekend there is no indication of a high surf at this point,” she said. “That means that king tides, which do not produce the big waves at Shore Acres, will likely just be a flat sea with a lot of water.”

Langlinais recommends simply watching the tide charts and surf / weather reports to see if the area gets a high surf of 16 to 20 feet. Those kinds of swells are what's needed for a great oceanic show.

“To see any of that at shore acres however people will have to hike in from Sunset Bay,” she said. “There are certainly other places to see king tides including Sunset Bay and Bastendorff Beach. But again without a high surf, king tides are just extremely high tides and extremely low tides.”

Further updates at Oregon's Adventure Coast

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Andre' GW Hagestedt is editor, owner and primary photographer / videographer of Oregon Coast Beach Connection, an online publication that sees over 1 million pageviews per month. He is also author of several books about the coast.

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